ALBANY – Scandal-plagued state Comptroller Alan Hevesi faced a major new problem yesterday, as his Republican opponent demanded that he pay overdue income taxes on the $82,000 in personal benefits he received by using a state worker as a chauffeur for his wife.

“With few exceptions, anything you receive of value from your job, including chauffeur services, is taxable,” said the GOP candidate, Christopher Callaghan.

“He should pay the taxes on this benefit. Perhaps the Internal Revenue Service may soon call on him to do that,” continued Callaghan, a former Saratoga County treasurer who first blew the whistle on Hevesi’s use of the chauffeur for his wife.

State Tax Department spokesman Tom Bergin said that while he couldn’t discuss Hevesi specifically, “hypothetically, a situation where someone receives a benefit like a chauffeur, that would be treated as taxable income.”

“And in circumstances where there is recognition of income after the fact – whether there is made reimbursements or some other acknowledgement – it usually results in the filing of amended tax returns and could affect the amount of taxes owed,” Bergin added.

The spokesman noted that Hevesi has agreed to repay the state for what he says is the cost of the chauffeur services.

Hevesi, who has yet to speak publicly about the growing scandal, refused through a spokesman to address the tax issue. Asked if Hevesi had paid taxes on the services provided by his wife’s state-supplied driver, spokesman David Neustadt responded, “No comment.”

All public- and private-sector officials are obliged, with few exceptions, to pay taxes on non-job-related benefits they receive at work, a tax-law concept known as “imputed income.”

Former Gov. Hugh Carey, for example, was once assessed back taxes for using state aircraft as a private ferry service.

Hevesi announced Monday that he would repay the state more than $82,000 for more than three years of chauffeur services provided his wife by Nicholas Acquafredda, a “security aide.”

Hevesi also asked the state Ethics Commission – which he initially claimed had approved his action – to review his conduct to see if laws were broken.